Undergraduate Chemical Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The program is designed to develop the scientific independence and self-confidence of participating undergraduates through personal achievement in hands-on laboratory activities in on-going research projects, and to provide participants with an opportunity of presenting their research results at scientific meetings and publishing in refereed journals.
Research opportunities will be provided in these areas:
Analysis of emerging contamination in the environment
REU students will be introduced to a number of analytical methods, such as HPLC, LC/MS and affinity chromatography, which are used to measure trace components in water samples.
Biosynthesis of antifugal natural products
REU students will:
- learn to grow and maintain bacterial strains that produce antibiotics
- perform small scale fermentations to prepare the antibiotics
- extract and isolate the antibiotics using TLC and LC chromatography
- analyze the antibiotic by HPLC, NMR and GC/MS
- test activities against various fungal pathogens
Chemistry and structure of innovative organolanthanide complexes
On this project, REU students will prepare new complexes of the lanthanide elements, characterize their structures by infrared, NMR, MS, UV-vis spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction methods, and study their chemical properties.
Computational Chemistry
REU students will apply computational chemistry tools together with x-ray structural data to characterize the active sites on antibiotics.
Development of new antibiotics
In this project, REU students will use single-strand DNA to search for new bacterial drugs.
DNA as an electrochemical sensor
REU students will learn to fabricate DNA sensors and operate an electrochemical workstation, study the effect of pH and total ionic strength on sensor behavior and investigate the effect of buffer identity on sensor performance on the rapid detection of environmentally hazardous chemicals.
Isolation and synthesis of fungal natural products
REU students will isolate active compounds from colonies of fungi using TLC and HPLC, and identify the compounds by hands-on GC/MS.
Metabolic analysis of drug activity using NMR spectrometry
In this research project, REU students will apply NMR spectroscopy to study the effects of chemicals on the concentration of metabolites during the cell-based activity of a drug or protein as a means of identifying potential new drugs.
Preparation and study of anhydrous fluoride salts
REU students will learn water- and oxygen-free synthetic methods and the use of 1H and 19F nmr spectroscopy while studying the incorporation of fluorine into organic molecules using different anhydrous fluoride salts.
Surface properties of metal oxides
REU students will divide their time between the synthesis of mixed metal oxides for their potential magnetic and environmental remediation properties, and the characterization of the oxides by Auger electron and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and SQUID magnetic measurements.
Synthesizing doped nanotubes for visible light catalysis
REU students will synthesize both doped and non-doped titania, TiO2, nanotubes by sol-gel methods, characterize the samples by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray powder diffraction and infrared spectroscopy, and test their photocatalytic activity on organic compounds such as chlorobenzene.
Using enzymes for studying organic and organometallic reactions
REU students will use UV spectroscopy to monitor enzyme reactions, and chiral HPLC to establish the optical purity of reaction products.
